Get Started on LinkedIn for Your Executive Job Search

Post author By Laura Smith-Proulx

Ready to launch an executive job hunt – but feeling daunted by all there is to learn about LinkedIn?

If you’ve long neglected LinkedIn during a busy executive career, you’re hardly alone.

Plenty of leaders are reluctant to publish career information online due to confidentiality reasons or because they’re unsure what data to publish.

However, because LinkedIn has exceeded 660 million members (December, 2019) and a record number of recruiters are using it to find talent, most executives are ramping up their LinkedIn efforts.

Increasing your personal LinkedIn visibility also increases the visibility of your organization and makes it more approachable, so the organization will benefit from your improved LinkedIn presence.

5 Steps to Effective LinkedIn Visibility

No matter the reason, it’s never too late to update your Profile and start gaining attention on LinkedIn, even if you are only beginning to think about leaving your present position.

Follow these steps to launch and promote a digital identity that can help you put your best foot forward.

1. Understand that LinkedIn is essentially a database that rewards strong content and user engagement.

By grasping the basics of LinkedIn, you’ll be in a far better position to add the right content and play the algorithm to your advantage. In doing so, you’ll become more visible to employers and recruiters, 90%+ of which (according to most studies) use the site to find and qualify talent.

Much like your resume, LinkedIn relies on keywords as an indicator of your strengths. So you will get the most traction from researching, and then using, the right keyword content in every part of your Profile.

These keywords are useful in attracting attention on LinkedIn, but they don’t necessarily give away confidential information – so there is very little downside to this activity.

Finding keywords is a matter of reviewing and collecting common terms from job descriptions of your target role. For example:

If your target is a Chief Medical Officer, your research would likely identify Patient Care Quality and Physician Relations as important keywords.
If your target is a Revenue Office role, your research would likely find Market Share and Strategic Partnerships to be important keywords.

Next, include these keywords in different fields on LinkedIn, especially your Headline (below your name at the top of your Profile) and the About section.

LinkedIn also “ranks” users based on how active they are on the site, and then shows your Profile more often when someone searches on your keywords.

So, take the time to accept connection requests from others, share articles of professional interest, and Like or Comment on content others have shared.

These activities serve a purpose: you will become more visible and searchable for your professional and leadership capabilities.

2. Build the basics: your personal information, Experience, and Education.

You can use LinkedIn’s built-in navigation tools to create your presence on LinkedIn, following the prompts that take you from signing up and providing an email address, to filling in job entries in Experience and providing details on your Education.

Let the system guide you to add sufficient information to get your Profile started, or to fill in additional detail (LinkedIn sometimes prompts users to add more data in other sections).

As long as the content is keyword-focused and relevant to your field, you will benefit from populating these areas more fully.

Spend some time tuning your “Contact info” (located near the top of your Profile by your location) to verify that others can reach you through the site.

Also, add at least a sentence or two under each Job to describe the scope of your work, impact on the company, and achievements.

3. Expand on your goals and career wins in the Headline and About.

Resist the urge to incorporate generalities in either of these sections, as they’re displayed prominently on LinkedIn as a core part of your brand. Your Headline is also considered a highly indexed field, meaning that any word you add to it will be counted as if it appeared dozens of times in other sections.

To write an effective Headline, use a combination of your current career level and achievements, plus the role you are pursuing.

For examples:

VP of Operations | COO. Increasing Capacity & Bottom-Line Results From M&A Strategy, Integration, & Process Improvements

Division CFO. Cash Flow, Automation, IT, & P&L Strategy at Multinational Supplier. Fiscal Strategist & Growth Leader

Keep your LinkedIn About focused on your brand proposition and keywords as well.

While you might be tempted to incorporate a bland resume summary on LinkedIn, strive for personal engagement.

Write your About in first-person form where possible, starting with opening lines such as these:

As a sales leader and Chief Revenue Officer, I’ve always enjoyed the thrill of the deal – leading consultative contract negotiations to ensure mutual benefit among our B2B customers. My work includes direction for teams across the US and Canada who are involved in channel development, partner enablement, and business development.

Note the heavy emphasis on keyword content in this Summary, along with first-person statements and mention of this leader’s multinational experience, B2B market focus, and team leadership.

4. Add Skills & Expertise, then seek Endorsements.

This section is similar to the Core Competencies shown on many resumes.

Here, you’ll want to add as many keyword entries as possible that are specific to your industry and career level.

LinkedIn allows up to 50 Skills, and you choose the 3 that are visible on your Profile.

For example:

Infrastructure Strategy, Big Data, or AI would be relevant to a technology officer or IT leader.

Sales executives could add Consultative Selling or Channel Sales.

An operations executive might use Cost Savings or Process Improvement.

Next, generate Endorsements: first ask colleagues to endorse you for these skills, then you will start to accumulate them as others learn about your expertise through regular activity.

The value of populating this section, plus earning Endorsements? LinkedIn will present your Profile to other users more frequently, depending on the volume of competencies and the actions of others.

5. Remember to stay reasonably current on LinkedIn in order to reap benefits.

Look around at other leaders in your field, especially those who seem active on the site. Perhaps they are commenting on industry news or describing their latest projects.

Take a cue from these activities and start by issuing a Like on articles of professional interest to you. The more activity you generate, the more you will become known outside of your immediate circle for your areas of specialty.

Take care to keep your activities strictly professional on LinkedIn; refrain from involvement in polarizing topics such as politics or other debatable subjects.

By keeping your personal and professional brand message consistent, you will be able to present the same image online as you would in an executive interview.

The Bottom Line

In summary, LinkedIn remains the place to heighten your visibility, even if you’re not yet ready for a job search. By taking steady steps to create a strong online identity, you will be in the best shape when targeting your next position.

5 Steps to Effective LinkedIn Visibility

1. Understand that LinkedIn is essentially a database that rewards strong content and user engagement.

2. Build the basics: your personal information, Experience, and Education.

3. Expand on your goals and career wins in the Headline and About.

4. Add Skills & Expertise, then seek Endorsements.

5. Remember to stay reasonably current on LinkedIn in order to reap benefits.

The Bottom Line

More About Succeeding on LinkedIn

Guide to LinkedIn for Executives

Guide to Executive Job Search:

How to Leverage LinkedIn Effectively:

More About LinkedIn: